The Kill List
by KittyRain
Summary: After a grim discovery on the Friendship Express, Twilight must figure out who could be horrible enough to do such a thing, before anypony else gets hurt. Nopony is safe. Rated M for violence.
1. Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle jolted awake at the high pitched voice calling her name. She looked around slightly blearily to see Pinkie Pie waving her arms frantically and yelling something about the Friendship Express. "Pinkie!" Twilight called, abandoning her warm bed in the attempt to get her friend to stop shouting. "PINKIE!"

Pinkie Pie stopped waving her arms and calling for her friend. The cease of motion gave her the appearence of instantly calming, though her eyes remained panicked and frantic. "Twilight! Haven't you heard?!" Pinkie spoke in a dramatic whisper, "They've found a dead pony on the Friendship Express! The police are running an investigation! They think someone murdered her!"

Twilight blinked, "Oh Pinkie... Who would want to murder anypony? Things like that just don't happen in Equestria!"

"They do now!" Pinkie said, her voice still slightly panicked, "Come on! They're at the station! Everyone else is already there. We have a mystery to solve!"

Despite instantly explaining to the pink mare that it will be the police who have the mystery, and it isn't right to go and stare as they try and do their job, Twlight followed her friend all the way to Ponyville Station.

The police had placed tape around the train to stop innocent ponies wandering too close, though it didn't seem to faze the crowd that had gathered, the muttering and solem expressions letting Twilight know her somewhat crazy friend had been telling the truth. Twilight sighed as she approached her other friends, gathered together in a small group a little distance from the onlookers. Fluttershy looked close to tears, and Rainbow Dash had a comforting arm round her shoulders. Once she joined the others, even Pinkie looked saddened. "What happened?" Twilight asked.

This question seemed to upset Fluttershy even further, tears started running down her cheeks, and Rainbow pulled her into a tight hug, running a hoof through her hair slowly. Rarity gave Fluttershy a look of pity before answering Twilight, "Fluttershy found her... She was on her way back from Canterlot after paying a visit to Princess Celestia and Philomena... Apparently she had fallen asleep on the train, and when she woke, she found herself face to face with the body of Lightning Dust." Rarity glanced at the kind pony before lowering her voice and muttering, "apparently she had almost been cut in two, and one of her wings had been brutally ripped from her body. Fluttershy is obviously in shock, it could have just as easily been her who had been..."

Twilight nodded, Rarity didn't need to finish her utterence, everypony knew what she meant. How close they had been to discovering Fluttershy's body on that train. "Have the police taken a statement?" she asked, receiving four nods and a soft wail in reply, "Well, let's go to the library, staying here won't help Fluttershy calm down."

Murmuring their agreement, the others followed Twilight away from the horrific scene, Rainbow leading Fluttershy gently. Twilight found herself wishing she had been the one to discover Lightning Dust's body, Fluttershy was too kind and gentle to ever witness something like that, and the unicorn found herself wondering how long it would take for Fluttershy to recover.


	2. Chapter 2

Twilight sighed heavily, pulling herself wearily from her bed. After leaving the station yesterday she had served each of her friends a strong cup of tea, and with a somewhat forced air of causality the conversation had managed to move onto lighter subjects before the other five ponies had parted ways, with Rainbow Dash deciding to stay the night at Fluttershy's cottage. Twilight had crawled into bed, nursing the suspicion that her two pegasi friends were a little more than simply platonic. The unicorn's night had been restless, her worried mind unable to stop wondering how Fluttershy was doing.

Deciding another strong cup of tea should suffice to aid her tired mind, Twilight headed downstairs, spotting the morning newspaper sitting on the table. Spike must have brought it in. She spotted a note resting atop it, and moved over to read;

_Twilight, out of milk. I've gone to get more, you NEED to read the paper! ~ Spike._

Frowning, Twilight unfolded the paper with a bit of gentle magic and began to read.

_**SHOCK AS BODY OF YOUNG FILLY IS FOUND BY FRIENDS!**_

_The body of a young Pegasus by the name of Scootaloo was found yesterday, by her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom._

_"She was just sat there" states Applebloom while comforting her distraught friend, "she was sat smiling. We thought she was fine, but when she didn't answer us we got scared. Then we noticed the red pool underneath her stool. We thought it was just a rug at first, but then we noticed it was really... It was blood."_

_According to the Ponyville Police, the body had no visible marks, but both the young filly's wings had been brutally removed._

_The shock of such a violent thing happening to such a young and friendly pony has caused a village wide panic..._

Twilight stopped reading, tears coming to her eyes as the loss of Scootaloo hit her. Who would do such a violent thing?

She began pacing as she thought. First it was Lightning Dust, whose wing had been taken, and now Scootaloo, her wings had been removed as well...

Twilight gasped. Pegasi! Whoever it was must be targeting flying ponies!

Rushing from her house, and almost knocking a returning Spike over in the process, Twilight dashed to Fluttershy's Cottage. Both her Pegasus friends were there, luckily.

She pushed her way in through the door, receiving two matching looks of utter puzzlement. Fluttershy was serving breakfast. Rainbow looked upset, she must have heard about Scootaloo. Fluttershy stepped forward, "Hello Twilight" she greeted softly, "would you like to join us?"

"Pegasi!"

"What?" Rainbow asked, confused at Twilights random outburst.

"Pegasi" Twilight repeated, " First Lightning Dust, now Scootaloo. The murderer must be targeting pegasi!"

The yellow mare blinked lightly, "Are... Are you sure Twilight?"

Nodding quickly the unicorn answered, "It must be pegasi, both Lightning Dust and Scootaloo had wings removed. Why would their wings be removed if they were simply unicorns or earth ponies?"

"Uh... Because they wouldn't have wings as unicorns or earth ponies?" Rainbow said slowly.

"Exactly!" Twilight said, "Therefore whoever it is doing these horrible murders must have something against Pegasi. Could you two go up to CloudsDale and ask if anypony has heard anything of somepony with a grudge against fliers? And stick together! Just in case..."

Nodding the two pegasi headed to the door. It was then Twilight noticed the cut on Rainbow's flank. When she questioned it the blue mare looked a little sheepish, "Oh, uh... My last prank spree with Pinkie Pie got a little out of hand, I'm fine though"

Twilight noticed something flash through Fluttershy's eyes at hearing about how Rainbow got injured, before the yellow mare blinked and the shadow vanished. Yes, Twilight decided. Definitely more than platonic friends!

As the two fliers reached the door, Fluttershy turned back, "Twilight... Umm... If you don't mind... Could you please check and see if Angel returns while we're at CloudsDale?"

"Sure" Twilight said happily, "uh... Where is he?"

"Oh... I'm not sure, he hasn't been home for several days now, he usually goes into the Everfree Forest for a while this time of year, there are... Other bunnies living there... But normally he's back after a couple of days... I'm starting to get a little worried."

"I'm sure he's fine Fluttershy" Twilight smiled, "Maybe he's found a special lady bunny and wanted to stay with her for a bit?"

"Oh... Maybe" Fluttershy nodded, "Thank you Twilight"

"Not a problem!" Twilight grinned as she watched her friends take off and head for CloudsDale. Maybe another Pegasus has heard something which will give her a vital clue in figuring out who had done these horrible murders, and stop them before anypony else got hurt!

Determination filling her, Twilight left the cottage to go speak to the Ponyville police.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: THis chapter is dedicated to insert-creative-name-here... Because they are awesome! And happen to be the only one who has said anything about this story so far ^^ (Besides Cass who has been my Beta reader)**

**Anyway... ENJOY! =^.^=**

**xXx xXx**

Things were not looking good in Ponyville. The _Ponyville Express _had reported yet more murders, this time the victims had been Iron Will and Gilda the Griffon. Twilight had been horrified to read about how Iron Will had been scalped on one half of his head. Apparently the police had found his scalp stuffed into his mouth, but his left horn had not been found. Gilda had been a little more unfortunate. Her wing feathers had been plucked, before her wings had been severely broken, apparently before she had died, and her tail was also missing from the scene.

The tragedy of Iron Will and Gilda had, at first, puzzled Twilight, as it completely trashed her previous suspicion that it was Pegasi being attacked. After many hours of pacing and deep thought, Twilight decided that simply doing nothing but contemplate the brutal murders was doing nothing for her sanity. She had arranged to have a nice picnic with her friends, for a chance to escape the gossip of Ponyville, who was the murderer? Who would be next? The constant muttering, mixed with the fear and suspicious looks was doing nothing to boost anypony's mood. Even Pinkie had been having a hard time getting people to smile again.

News of the murders had even reached Princess Celestia, who had written to Twilight, asking her clever student to work with the Ponyville police to try and figure out who was doing such brutal acts, and put a stop to their reign of terror. Boosted by Celestia's confidence, Twilight had left her home, armed with a plate of sandwiches, and headed to the picnic, to tell her friends that she will be working with the police to end this horror.

When she reached the meeting spot, Twilight spotted Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. The yellow mare had a basket next to her. Both ponies looked a little uncomfortable, which confused the unicorn. "Hey guys, what's wrong?"

"I got questioned by the police" Rainbow Dash said quietly, "So did Fluttershy. Because we have a history of disagreeing with Iron Will and Gilda... they also asked us about Lightning Dust."

Twilight blinked, "They don't think either of you two could do such a thing?!"

Rainbow shrugged, "When they found out that we were both good friends with Scootaloo they seemed to drop their suspicions... I guess they were just checking everyone who may have had some sort of grudge against each victim."

Twilight hummed thoughtfully, now that Celestia had asked her to look into the murders, Twilight was fully capable of asking the police what they knew. Surely they couldn't suspect either of her friends!

The mood lightened a little at the arrival of Rarity and Applejack, who appeared to be having some sort of argument over the best way to fold an Apple Fritter. "But Applejack darling, it is just so much more aesthetically pleasing doing it my way."

"That may be so Rarity, but the Apple Family have been folding our fritters this way for years! It's pretty much tradition to fold them our way!" Applejack said exasperatedly.

Rarity huffed lightly before cheerfully greeting her other friends. They chatted casually for a little while before they started to become uncomfortable about the absence of their pink friend. Rarity was insistent that Pinkie was just running late, and probably wouldn't mind if they started without her. The others tentatively agreed, and soon each pony had a sandwich and a drink, brought by Rainbow Dash. Conversation was light, as they enjoyed the free time away from the horrors of recent happenings. Nobody was shocked at finding out Applejack had brought Apple Fritters, and Rarity had brought a delicious looking trifle. Fluttershy nervously showed her batch of pink topped cupcakes. She muttered about how they would probably not be a delicious as Pinkie's cupcakes, but she must have felt like baking last night, as she had discovered them in the morning. After receiving puzzled looks from her friends, the shy pegasus had explained that since the event on the Friendship Express, she hadn't been sleeping properly, and had found she had been waking without ever remembering going to bed the night before. She put it to being overly tired, and simply forgetting her actions due to her exhaustion.

Conversation then dwindled as everypony noticed that Pinkie Pie had still not joined them. Worried, they each decided to look for their friend. It wasn't like Pinkie to forget a picnic, or any sort of gathering really. Packing away the uneaten fritters, trifle and cupcakes, they headed off to Sugar Cube Corner, deciding that was the most likely of places to find their pink friend.

Worry grew into concern when they couldn't find Pinkie anywhere. Twilight felt a horrible twist within her stomach, and her heart was thudding against her ribcage as she lead the group through the streets of Ponyville, asking anypony they saw if they had spotted the pink mare.

A scream ripped through the streets, causing everypony around to freeze. This was not good! Twilight ran. She could hear her friends following behind her. The mantra "Please don't be Pinkie" ran through the unicorn's mind as she rushed to where the scream originated.

BonBon was staring in terror at something on the roof of her home, Lyra by her side looking just as shocked. Twilight blinked passed the sunlight, to see Cherry Cola, hanging upside down from the chimney, his rear legs bent awkwardly and stuffed tightly into the opening to keep him in place. His badly bruised body looked misshapen, as if every one of his bones had been broken. Twilight could see a large, gaping gash along his stomach and up to his throat, his ribs snapped and bent backwards to show the inside of his chest cavity, where his lung should have been. The removal of the organs had left a violent mess. Flies had started to buzz around the body, showing it had been there a while. Twilight heard Rarity faint. The purple unicorn turned round, and vomited.


End file.
